Contemporary hard disk drives employ a voice coil motor pivoting about an actuator pivot to position one or more sliders over rotating disk surfaces. Each slider is supported a very short distance above its rotating disk surface by an air bearing formed by the flow of air through the gap between the air bearing surface of the slider and the disk surface. The slider is positioned at a pitch angle to disk surface, with the trailing edge being closest to it and the front edge furthest. Near the trailing edge, the read-write head operate to access the data typically stored in a track on the disk surface. Recently the inventors discovered that the flying height drops significantly in humid conditions, as disclosed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/816,162 referenced above.
What is needed is a way to minimize this the drop in flying height due to water condensation.